Rowell Fund for Tibet announces grants to projects on maternal healthcare, photography, journalism, and oral history

The Rowell Fund for Tibet’s Board of Advisors has decided to award funds for 2012 to seven projects that deal with maternal health care, oral history, journalism, education and photography. The Fund will award $40,968 to applicants for projects throughout Asia in memory of lifelong Tibet supporters, Galen and Barbara Rowell, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

The Fund received 111 applications from Tibetans in Tibet and outside for this grant cycle, and the selected projects will receive amounts ranging from $7500 to $3725.

“With a record number of applications this year, the Board of Advisors had more diversity of projects, but no less of a challenge in selecting the best projects that fulfill the mission of the Rowell Fund. We hope that the Rowell Fund continues to fill a niche to provide core or supplemental funding for projects that may be otherwise hard to fund,” said John Ackerly, member of the Board of Advisors of Rowell Fund for Tibet.

As avid mountaineers and outdoor photographers, Galen and Barbara Rowell helped bring Tibet and the Himalayas into the public eye. Their fund continues this legacy, providing small grants to Tibetan writers, academics, photographers, and conservationists. To learn more about Galen and Barbara Rowell and the background of the Rowell Fund, visit www.savetibet.org/support-tibet/rowell-fund-for-tibet/.

Some of this year’s grant recipients are:*

1. Association of Tibetan Journalists (ATJ) in Dharamsala to publish a stylebook in Tibetan language, primarily on print and radio reporting. (Grant amount: $7243) www.tibetanjournalists.org

2.Tibetan Oral History Project to record and translate the personal histories of Tibetan elders in Tibetan settlements in India. (Grant amount: $7500) www.tibetoralhistory.org

*Not all projects have been listed as some of the recipients have requested confidentiality.

ICT and the Rowell Fund for Tibet wish to congratulate this year’s grant recipients. Past recipients have included Tibetans who have undertaken photography, film making and related projects that have enriched the Tibetan society. The Advisory Board of the Fund is made up of friends and family of Galen & Barbara and includes John Ackerly, Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Jimmy Chin, Bob and Beth Cushman, John Jancik , Bob Palais, Tony Rowell and Ray and Nicole Rowell Ryan. The Fund is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.